Shelby Lee Walsh, TrendHunter.com Editor (Interview)

Before she became an editor at Trend Hunter, Shelby Lee Walsh was one of our six summer 2009 interns. Prior to that, she was working at a law office, slowly becoming addicted to TrendHunter.com on the side.

It wasn’t long into her internship that Shelby showed us that she was ambitious, determined and born to find and write about the most viral trends and offbeat discoveries on the web. Check out her portfolio and you’ll find it brimming with over 1,000 articles that gush with creative flair—the type that can only be born when one succumbs to one’s passion.

In the interview with Shelby Lee Walsh below, find out more about how she joined Trend Hunter, her favourite trends and what motivates her to continue.

13 Questions With Shelby Lee Walsh

1. How did you get involved with Trend Hunter, and what motivates you to continue?

I was on the site roughly four months before I saw a posting for a journalism internship. Having already fallen in love with Trend Hunter, I applied and got accepted. The rest is history.

2. How significant are the topics of cool hunting and trend spotting for journalists?

If you don’t keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on around you, it is easy to lose touch with your audience and the world. Cool hunting and trend spotting are imperative tools for journalists (and people in general) to use for that reason.

3. How do you define a trend?

A trend is a seed of innovation that blossoms into something much bigger.

4. How do you define cool?

Cool is what you like. It is subjective. I like the Cap Sac (a fanny pack for your head). Many people may think that a Cap Sac is severely uncool, but their definition of cool probably isn’t half as interesting as mine.

5. What is the best way to write an infectious article?

Putting personality into an article is the best way to have your message stick and let your readers connect. Having something insatiably interesting to write about also helps.

6. What is the key to innovation?

The key to innovation is constant evolution. Our environment, consumer needs, economics, people, scenarios, etc. are ever-changing and because of this, we need to react to these changes by thinking outside the box and getting creative. The first step to innovation is taking a leap of faith into unknown territories.

7. What are the most important trends that you’ve posted that you REALLY hope take off?

8. You were a legal secretary before you joined Trend Hunter. What was it about Trend Hunter that lured you?

I learned so much from working at a law office and I appreciate my work experience there, but I wasn’t being creatively stimulated. After reading Trend Hunter avidly as I worked at the office (not during work hours, of course), it didn’t take much to convince me that applying for a Trend Hunter journalism internship would be a perfect opportunity for me.

9. What are your ambitions for Trend Hunter?

I think there are so many places that Trend Hunter can go. It is the perfect launching platform for anything in business, innovation, marketing, etc. and has already grown so much within the last year. Since our success and growth with the site has been flourishing, we’ve launched Trend Hunter PRO, workshops, released the book ‘Exploiting Chaos’ under the Trend Hunter brand and redesigned the aesthetic of the site. It is impossible to tell what avenues Trend Hunter will choose to go down in the future, but I can tell you one thing: there are no limits as to how far it will go.

10. How do you reset yourself to be creative?

I constantly have ideas buzzing around in my noodle so I just try and hone in on one in particular.

12. What are your most important hobbies?

Writing, reading, Internet browsing, hanging out with friends, dancing, laughing, listening to music and going to shows.

13. Finally, tell me why YOU like Trend Hunter.

This is a website that I loved even before I worked here. It has everything necessary to entertain, uplift, innovate and change the world. The little trends we post can make big statements and I love that I have earned the chance to be a part of that.